All in Three Days Work

Two weekends ago, I spent the weekend home in Canada thinking that I couldn't possibly fit any more things into a single weekend. Then, this past weekend in Ann Arbor I proved myself very wrong.

Friday

After a long productive day at work in Romulus, Michigan...
4:30pm - Get accepted into the University of Michigan's MBA program!
4:45pm - Call my immediate family and somehow get everyone on the first try
5:00pm - Drive to Staples in Ann Arbor to see printers for an hour, decide to return Sunday for a sale
6:15pm - Drive to celebrate Sean's birthday at Belmark bowling alley. While there, connect with Sean, Anne, Megan and Dan too, buy Sean a pitcher, bowl a few spares (which is pretty good for me), and unfortunately leave early...
7:30pm - Drive north for David's birthday at Stillwater Grill in Brighton, and enjoy good times with Melissa, Tommy and others. Kabir shows up unexpectedly, on the way to Ann Arbor from Kettering
9:30pm - Head to Ann Arbor and pick up Shanna at Starbucks, a favorite swing dance partner (visiting from Colorado!), drive us to the local Swing Dance, where we dance our heart out until 'round midnight.
12:30am - Drive Shanna home, then over to David's house to join the after-party festivities
4:00am - After "encouraging the party to die down", I hit the pillow!

Saturday

9:00am - wake up to the sound of chainsaws cutting down the tree outside the window, try desperately to sleep through it, with little success
12:30pm - Kabir arrives and hacks my computer
1:00pm - Kabir and I spend time talking about hacking and he teaches me about Wordpresse too, then we order lunch from the classic Hello Faz Pizza
4:30pm - Allie and John arrive and I help them record the final touches on their "Mr. Michigan" Jewish rap/medley competition song. Being a combination of The Pursuit of Happiness (or "Jewishness") and Gangsta Love, it also won first prize in a competition at Hillel!
6:45pm - Kick Allie and John out after handing over the final cut, then bust into the shower, and jump into my suit and tie
7:30pm - pick up Jess for a 7:55pm dinner reservation at the incredibly amazing Cliff Bell's establishment in downtown Detroit. They don't take reservations after 8pm apparently.
8:10pm - Arrive late and still get seated at the prime table, front and centre, literally touching the stage. Get surprise-treated to a phenomenal dinner, including spontaneous surprise champagne to celebrate recent university acceptance.
9:30pm - The Dwight Adams Jazz Quartet plays two world class sets, completely blowing me away. I can't believe I had been deprived of real jazz for so long, and they even played a billiant version of the classic Round Midnight (despite it being only 10:30pm!)
12:30am - Talk with and thank the musicians personally, then speed back to Ann Arbor to drop off my sleeping passenger (I can drive very smoothly if necessary!)
2:00am - Finish procrastinating the onset of sleep and finally conk out to sleep

Sunday

7:30am - Jump out of bed to go drive a car-less friend to an early morning class
8:15am - Drive to David's house to wake up the excessively sleepy Kabir
8:30am - Load the car and drive Kabir back home to Kettering in Flint, who sleeps enroute.
9:30am - Wish Kabir goodbye, forget to stop to eat anything on the way back to Ann Arbor
10:30am - Arrive in Ann Arbor again, try to catch up on some emails
10:35am - Take an involuntary nap (involuntary but oh so refreshing)
12:30pm - Play guitar on the front step of David's torn-up house (he's repairing the foundation) as an unofficial part of the local Water Hill music festival. With no spectators (other than the bulldozer and mud mountain on the lawn), I pack up and get back to my emai
2:00pm - Drive to Erin's house to see her friends perform in the festival, enjoy much festival music and witness a maypole dance for the first time.
3:00pm - Drive back to Staples and buy the new printer and cartridge. Use crazy amounts of combination coupons to end up paying only $10 for $100 worth of paper. Realize a little late, that wait a second, do I really need $100 worth of paper?
4:00pm - Leor brings Liz over to say goodbye before her trip, and I help her pack and store extra stuff with some incredible suitcase tetris skills
5:30pm - Join Peggy, Caleb and other friends at the nearby tent city for the homeless, called Camp Take Notice, for the weekly potluck dinner and camp residents meeting. I play dinner guitar music with Lori and Randy for the group and they all sing along, christening us the Rocky Mountain Pine Trees. I then eat dinner with about 30 people, over half of them camp residents.
7:00pm - I observe the residents meeting proceedings, including democratic votes on whether to readmit certain previously expelled members (removal occurs automatically for any alcohol/drug posession with zero tolerance according to strict camp rules). One member is nearly banned with 7 votes against returning and 8 votes for, so the executive commitee agrees to admit him pending a drug test
8:00pm - I get asked to administer (with Peggy's assistance) the 15-minute home drug test as part of the readmission procedure (an outside-my-comfort-zone experience) and I report back to the campers' executive committee on the results - clean except for one category, which was explained through a prescription.
9:00pm - Drive to Emily's house to talk about many generative topics, and even learn some knitting. Cynthia avoids hugs because she is sick, but I hug her anyway... I don't get sick :)
11:30pm - Pick up some food at Jimmy John's and invite Erin over to share late-night food and commentary on Bin Laden's recent demise while we watch CNN.
1:30am - Erin leaves, and I talk to Dan about his incredible motorcycle accident story
2:30am - I reflect on the weekend, and realize I got even more done than what I had planned, and decided to write about it
2:45am - I go to sleep knowing I need to get up at 6:30am!

My last post on this sort of topic reminds me how much more sleep I used to get! Its been a great start to the month of May and I'm pretty happy. I'm also thankful that I made such good use of my time in Ann Arbor over the weekend, and grateful for all the people that made it a good one. Thanks everyone!

Daniel

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